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Since the 1800’s the two current political parties have dominated our system of government. Both parties managed to govern when it was their turn to run the government. This system of government worked for us for some time. This changed in recent years, (more specifically the 1990’s.) Now only one party is capable of governing.

George Washington once warned of the dangers of a two-party system. He was right. It used to be that despite their differences, the two parties were able to govern, no matter who was in power. After the 1994 election when Republicans took control of both chambers of Congress for more than a generation, things went downhill. A government shutdown occurred and congress later tried to impeach the president because he lied under oath about Monica Lewinsky. Despite this, they were eventually able to pass a budget and even managed to put our country on a pathway to settle our debt.

During the George W. Bush administration, there was animosity between the two parties but things still got done. When Democrats took control of congress in 2007, budgets were passed, but the White House and Congress sparred over political differences. In 2009, the Democrats gained control of two out of the three branches of government. The Republicans immediately decided that they would attempt to block anything the Democrats tried to get done rather than compromise.

It was during that time that things slowed down in Congress. Republicans worked tirelessly to make sure that business in government would grind to a halt. They set a new standard of requiring 60 votes for anything except the budget to get anything passed. Towards the end of the Obama administration, the Republicans blocked Obama from appointing a Supreme Court Justice. By the time Trump took office, the Republicans managed to prevent a budget from getting passed on a regular basis. Instead they would go months at a time passing a continuing resolution setting up budget battles. The Republicans even shut down the government and nearly defaulted on our nation’s debt.

Today the Republicans control all three branches of government and are unable to govern effectively. The latest Health Care debacle is an example of this. Things that President Trump said he wanted to do in a bipartisan matter like improving infrastructure are going nowhere. Republicans with few exceptions are spending most of their time trying to defend the president. There are two main types of Republicans left in the party. Those who are willing to defy Trump on some things and others who have made a deal with the devil to get what they want.

The Republican Party used to be the party of Civil Rights, low debt, fiscal responsibility and even helping working class people. Today they are the party of racism, big business and servants for corporate America. Last year they nominated someone with no morals and no ethics who was willing to commit treason to get elected. The party may have lost its mind during the Obama years, but they lost their soul in supporting and continuing to support someone like Trump.